Oh, and in the article, here's something I didn't know -- Rose, who left Michigan after his Junior year, ended up getting his degree - not from Michigan - but from Maryland. Hey, at least all that "M" gear can still be worn.

Ed. Note: My apologies that I have two male stories above and only this one female-centered story. Looks like we'll never get picked up by the Big 10 Network.

(HT: BK)

* Finally, as many of you wrote to tell us, the Big House is officially on its way to getting bigger. Yesterday, the U-M Board of Regents approved the $226M renovation plan. The work will be completed in 2010 and raise the total seating capacity from 107,501 to over 108,000. The "new and improved" Big House will include 83 suites and 3,200 club seats.

$226 Million. Wow. Pretty amazing, especially when you stop to consider the entire stadium was built in 1927 for $950,000.

You know, I must say, I was pretty opposed to the renovation when first proposed but I've softened in the intervening months. Maybe I've just become a big pussy. Or maybe, just maybe, I want to believe that the newfangled design will help trap sound and turn the Big House into the Loud House. Thoughts?

12 comments:

I love Michigan games, however, i do not love having to share a seat with a 230lb professional stereotype psycho sport parent where every play there is a hold that he feels necessary to call out to me and everyone else. this is a big ten game, everyone holds. I think that with the addition of the club seats, the bleacher seats will be widened, since the last expansion saw not much construction, and mostly squeezing.i think that in 2010, some if not most of you will be praising the idea of not having to share your seat with this couple

Wow, $226MM for about 500 more seats. I'll put in 1000 more for you for half that.

Obviously you're on the asymptotical portion of the curve that the marginal costs are way the fuck more than the benefit.

Yes, yes I know you're getting suites and skyboxes... I always see lawyers posting legalese all over the blogs and I hardly ever get a chance to show off my chemical engineering degree with a minor in economics./geekmode off

"I want to believe that the newfangled design will help trap sound and turn the Big House into the Loud House."

The Loud House? Just last season, weren't you posting rant after rant about how a place that seats over 100K was a joke when it came to home field advantage, since Meeeeechigan fans don't know how to yell but instead jingle their keys? You could put a roof over the whole damn thing, but unless your fans learn how to use their "outside voices" (yes, I have two kids), it still won't matter.

Once again, I would like to invite you to an Auburn-LSU game sometime - neither stadium holds more than 90K, but you would swear that there were over 200K when a big play happens. I lived 10 miles from the stadium when I was at Auburn -I missed one game because I was sick, and from my back patio, I could hear the crowd when Auburn scored. Then there was the infamous "Earthquake game" at LSU one year, where LSU scored at the last minute to win the game. The crowd noise registered on the Reichter Scale at the LSU geology building, literally shaking the earth.

You know I love you guys, and I wish you and Meechigan all the best, but no one tops the SEC in terms of Loud Houses. But hey, everyone needs something to aspire to!! :)

The thing that irritates me about the tight seat issue is that it's only tight because people sit throughout the game.. if people would just stand and cheer their team this wouldn't be an issue -- and maybe it'd be a little louder too.

Enough with the SEC centric bullshit. Yeah, you people get loud at games. However, you have not cornered the market on crowd noise. Go to a night game at PSU. They have been told they have to get quiter, or the whole damn stadium is going to break. I haven't heard anything about a fear of breaking stadiums coming from the SEC.

"The 400,000-square-foot additions include two multi-story masonry structures on both the east and west sides of the stadium; the ends zones will remain open. Approximately 83 suites and 3,200 club seats will be added. The structures, which will stand 10 feet higher than the current scoreboards at their highest point, also will direct crowd noise back onto the field, providing a greater home-field advantage." (emphasis added)

... The stadium was again expanded in 1981 with the addition of the East Upper Deck. This addition caused somewhat of a controversy because of its tendency to sway during games. Shock absorbers were installed in the stadium after the 1983 season. But, fans will tell you that the East Upper Deck still rocks to this day when many fans jump up and and down. Because of the stadium's tendency to sway, former head Coach Joe Morrison coined the phrase, "If it ain't swaying, we ain't playing."

So, what will be the *actual* capacity of the stadium? It's cute and all that the athletic department still clings to the myth that the stadium only holds 107k people, but please don't tell me that the "new" capacity of 108k will become the *actual* capacity when all is said and done.... I still have yet to see anywhere that definitively says the stadium will still be able to hold 113k+.

"I haven't heard anything about a fear of breaking stadiums coming from the SEC."

That's because engineers from SEC schools know how to factor such things as noise and 90K people coming to their feet all at once into their designs. What your comment says to me is that you guys must have some pretty crappy engineers or some old P.O.S. stadiums... not sure I'd be bragging about that. Of course, at PSU, y'all seem to favor lots of things older than dirt...

And you may as well get used to the SEC being the center of the college football universe for a while and then some, friend. Facts is facts.

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